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Culture Focus: Advent

Posted on 2012/12/05
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Last Sunday was the first Sunday in Advent according to the Christian liturgical (church) calendar.  Advent marks the start of the Christmas season.  The term “advent” comes from a Latin root meaning “to come” or “coming.”  In the Bible, the people of the Old Testament anticipated (looked forward to) the coming of a Messiah.  Christians believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah, and celebrate his birth at Christmas.  Hence, we call the four-week period before Christmas “Advent.”  In Christian churches it is a common practice to have an “Advent wreath.”  An Advent wreath is a horizontal wreath with four or five candles.  One candle is lit on the first Sunday in Advent, two candles are lit on the second Sunday, and so on, with the fifth and final candle (sometimes called the “Christ candle”) being lit on Christmas Day.

With the secularization of Christmas, there is not a great emphasis on the religious significance of Advent.  However, some of the anticipatory aspect is retained with the cultural tradition of an “Advent calendar.”  As you might imagine, children love Christmas, and they find it difficult to wait for the big day.  Twenty-five days is a very long time when you’re a child, especially if you don’t know how to read a calendar!  So to help children count down the days until Christmas, they use an Advent calendar.  An Advent calendar is a calendar with twenty-four “doors” representing the dates December 1 through December 24.  Every day starting at the beginning of the month, children count down to Christmas by opening up a door, revealing a picture, a poem, part of a story, or similar item to capture and hold the interest of the children.  Some calendars might even have a small toy or chocolate behind the door.

In America, a kind of “audio” Advent calendar is a radio program called “The Cinnamon Bear.”  First aired in 1937, “The Cinnamon Bear” is an old-fashioned radio show consisting of a series of 26 fifteen-minute episodes that ran daily from late November until Christmas Eve (December 24).  The story follows the adventures of twins Judy and Jimmy as they try to get the Silver Star to put on top of their Christmas tree.  Various things happen to the Silver Star – the Star gets lost or stolen by different characters – so each episode ends in a “cliff hanger,” which encourages the children to tune in the next day to find out if Judy and Jimmy will ever manage to get their Silver Star back so they can finish decorating their Christmas tree.  Some radio stations air this beloved program every year, starting just after Thanksgiving.  If you like, you can listen to the episodes here. It’s great listening practice for ESL!

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Culture Focus: Thanksgiving

Posted on 2012/11/21
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The First Thanksgiving

“The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth” (1914)
by Jennie A. Brownscombe

This Thursday is Thanksgiving Day in the United States.  Although it was observed at various times and by various presidents during the early part of American history, it wasn’t until 1863 that the last Thursday in November was proclaimed a national “day of Thanksgiving and Praise” by President Abraham Lincoln.  Since then, it has been an annual holiday, which in 1941 was amended slightly to be celebrated the fourth Thursday in November rather than the last Thursday of the month.

The origins of this American celebration date back to the Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony, who played a crucial role in the early history of this nation.  In the late fall of 1621 the Pilgrims held a feast of thanksgiving for a good harvest.  Of the 102 colonists that had left on the ship Mayflower to start a new life in the New World, only 53 had survived.  The Pilgrims had arrived the previous year, landing at Plymouth Rock in December 1620.  But since it was in winter, conditions were very hard, and nearly half the original passengers died from the disease and harsh conditions of that first winter.  The Indians in the area were a tremendous help to the Pilgrims during their early struggles, teaching them how to catch eel and grow corn, and even giving them food.  As a result, the surviving Pilgrims were grateful for a good harvest and the help they had received from the natives, so they held a harvest feast with the Indians.  The following are a couple of first-hand accounts of that celebration of thanksgiving:

They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had all things in good plenty. For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercised in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion. All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees). And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides, they had about a peck a meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to the proportion. Which made many afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned but true reports.  (William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation)

Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruits of our labor. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which we brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty. (Edward Winslow, Mourt’s Relation)

So, every year Americans continue this nearly four-hundred-year-old tradition of setting aside a day in the autumn to give thanks for all their blessings.  May we all take a moment and be truly thankful for all the good things in life that we enjoy.

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Education Focus: Yearbooks

Posted on 2012/11/19
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Many people like to have souvenirs, or some sort of memento from a part of their life that has special significance to them.  For students, this type of memento or memory book is called a yearbook.

Yearbook

School days, school days, dear old golden rule days ~

A yearbook is a book put together by the students of a school.  Typically, yearbooks were something for college or high school students, but in recent years a number of middle schools have opted to offer a yearbook as well.  This book is full of pictures taken throughout the school year – some pictures are formal and posed, but many of the pictures are candid shots taken at school events or during the course of a typical school day.  Pictures of football games and other sporting events, parades and tournaments, band concerts and dances, class projects or field trips, student clubs and other activities, as well as candid snapshots in the halls or during a class, all provide ample opportunity for making memories that are later preserved in the pages of a yearbook.  Usually, the pictures are often captioned with witticisms or other inside jokes that mark the yearbook as something that is unique not only to that particular school, but also to that particular class of students.

Some yearbooks are distributed at the end of the school year.  The advantage of this is that students will be able to pass around their yearbooks and have their friends autograph them before everyone parts ways during the summer vacation.  The disadvantage, however, is that graduation – the highlight of the school year – is generally unable to be included due to time constraints.  Because of this, some schools choose to distribute their yearbooks in the following fall, giving the yearbook staff ample time to include graduation and other end-of-the-year activities in the yearbook.   The disadvantage of this approach, of course, is that graduating seniors and others who have moved away won’t be able to pass around their yearbooks for their friends to sign.

Oftentimes, signing a yearbook involves more than just scribbling one’s signature, particularly among friends.  Students will write words of encouragement to their friends, reminisce about good times, share inside jokes, complain about difficult teachers, and so on.  Some might even include a bit of doggerel:

Don’t make love
By the garden gate
Love is blind
But the neighbors ain’t

You’re
2 good
2 be
4 gotten

or

Remember Grant
Remember Lee
The heck with them
Remember me

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Culture Focus: Going on Vacation

Posted on 2012/07/18
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For many Americans, summertime is vacation time.  Part of the reason for this is because the traditional American school year includes a three-month break for the summer.  This makes it easier to take an extended trip of a week or two with the kids.  Additionally, the weather is warmer than other times of the year, making travel easier.

There are different ways to take a vacation:

  • Road trip.  The whole vacation is a road trip – for example, drive around Lake Michigan or Lake Superior.
  • Hotel / resort.  Travel to a destination – such as a hotel or resort – and then relax at that destination for several days.
  • Visiting family.  Take the opportunity to visit the grandparents or other relatives, especially if Grandma and Grandpa live out-of-state.
  • “RVing.”  RVing means “living on the road in an RV,” or recreational vehicle (= camping car).
  • Camping.  Spend your vacation in the great outdoors, making your vacation a camping or fishing trip.
  • Rent a vacation home.  Rent a vacation home for a week or so and unwind.
  • Educational trip.  Combine vacation with education, and take the children to visit famous historical sites, such as Civil War battlefields or the numerous historical attractions around the Washington, D.C. area.
  • Amusement park.  Take a trip to Disneyland (in California) or Disneyworld (in Florida).
  • College Visits.  If you have teenagers who are thinking about going to college, include a visit to check out several college campuses as part of your summer vacation.
  • Staycation.  If you don’t have the money to travel, or you don’t want the hassle of traveling, take a “staycation” (= stay vacation) and relax at home.

Regardless of your preference, a vacation is a great time to step aside from the daily grind of work or your normal routine, and “recharge your batteries.”  In this day and age of instant, constant communication (email, internet, cell phones, etc.), it’s perhaps more important than ever to take some sort of break – whether physical (going away somewhere) or mental (“unplugging” from electronics) – and spend some time in self-renewal.  So, let your friends and colleagues know that you’re going on vacation, and you’ll be unavailable for several days.  Hang out a virtual sign, as it’s sometimes put in the vernacular:

Gone Fishing!

Gone fishing ~

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Education Focus: School Subjects – Elementary School

Posted on 2012/07/16
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Elementary SchoolToday’s Education Focus will take a quick look at the subjects typically covered at the elementary school level.  Originally called “grammar school” or “grade school,” elementary school historically has covered the basic subjects, sometimes called “The Three R’s”:  Reading, ’Riting (writing), and ’Rithmetic (arithmetic).  These subjects still form the foundation of elementary education, but the scope of elementary school has been expanded to include:
•    Basic Science – i.e., basic biology, basic chemistry, basic earth science;
•    Social Studies – including not only basic history, but basic geography and learning about other societies or cultures;
•    English – which includes basic grammar and spelling as well as reading and writing;
•    Art;
•    Music; and
•    P.E. – physical education, also called “gym,” since students go to the gymnasium for this class.

Historically, elementary school consisted of grades 1 – 8, but sometime after World War I there began a shift towards taking the last two or three years of elementary school (grades 7 – 8 or grades 6 – 8) and converting them into a “bridge” phase of education, helping to transition students between the elementary school educational structure and the high school educational structure (grades 9 – 12).  This transitional school was originally called “junior high school,” but in later years it has become more common to call it “middle school.”  Next week we’ll take a look at the curriculum focus of the junior high / middle school.

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Culture Focus: Good Luck / Bad Luck

Posted on 2012/07/11
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Lucky Horseshoe

Lucky Horseshoe – with ends pointing up so the luck won’t run out

Superstitions vary from culture to culture.  What is considered good luck in one culture may be considered bad luck in another.  Today in our Culture Focus, we are going to look at some things that Americans consider good luck, and what things are considered bad luck.

Good Luck

There are different ways to bring about good luck.  Of course, you can wish a friend or acquaintance “Good luck!” when they face some big event in their life – going on a trip, getting married, taking a test, and so on.  For actors, musicians, and other stage performers, it is common to wish them good luck by telling them to “Break a leg!”  This is because people used to believe that by pretending to wish something bad on a person, an evil spirit would do the opposite, and end up actually bringing good fortune to the person.

Another way of bringing about good luck is by doing some lucky action.  Picking up a pin is considered lucky.  So is picking up a penny:

“Find a penny,

Pick it up,

All day long

You’ll have good luck.”

Finding a four-leaf clover is another action that is said to bring good luck.  Another common way of bringing good luck is by rubbing or touching something – a statue, for example.  At Lincoln’s Tomb in Springfield, Illinois, the bust of Lincoln’s head has a shiny nose from countless numbers of schoolchildren touching it for good luck!

Good luck can also be brought about by possessing some sort of lucky charm, or talisman.  Common objects considered to bring good luck are a rabbit’s foot, a four-leaf clover, or wearing a special piece of clothing – hat, shirt, shoes, etc.  Profession athletes sometimes insist on wearing a particular hat or shirt, or a jersey with a particular number on it.  Lucky objects can also be placed in, on, or around a person’s home or property.  A horseshoe is often put on a door, or over a door, to bring good luck – and to make sure that the good luck stays, the ends of the horseshoe must be pointing up.

Certain numbers can also be lucky – often this would be 7 or 11, but sometimes individuals can have their own number that they consider lucky.

Sometimes instead of bringing good luck, people do or say things that at least prevent bad luck from happening.  The “break a leg” wish mentioned above is an example of this.  Another example:  if you spill some salt, you should throw a pinch of it over your left shoulder to prevent bad luck from coming your way.  And, if you say something positive and you want things to stay positive, you can follow your statement with the phrase “knock on wood”:  “I haven’t been in a car accident yet, knock on wood.”

Bad Luck

The opposite of good luck is bad luck, and there are certain actions or situations that should be avoided if one does not want to bring bad luck upon themselves.  Walking under a ladder, opening an umbrella in the house, and having a black cat cross your path are all said to bring bad luck.  If you break a mirror, you will have seven years of bad luck.  Children learn a rhyme:  “Step on a crack, break your mother’s back” – which would certainly be bad luck for the mother.

There are also unlucky numbers and unlucky days.  13 is considered to be the unluckiest number – some hotels and other buildings might actually skip over the 13th floor, or skip room 13 because of 13’s status as an unlucky number.  If there are 13 people invited to a dinner party, the host will probably invite another person to avoid the unlucky number.  As for unlucky days, Friday is considered to be unlucky – sailors did not want to set out on a voyage on Friday, and by extension modern travelers are warned about starting a trip on Friday.  To do something to your bed on Friday, like change the sheets or turn the mattress, will also invite bad luck in the form of a bad dream, or sleeplessness.

In particular, the combination of the unlucky number (13) and the unlucky day (Friday) is said to be extra unlucky:  Friday the 13th is supposed to be a day of bad luck.  Of course, it is no luckier or unluckier than any other date on the calendar, but it may just seem like an unlucky day:  on that day people pay more attention to any and every bad thing that happens to them.

This coming Friday is Friday the 13th.  If you are superstitious, you can try to find a four-leaf clover, or carry a lucky rabbit’s foot with you.  But if not, you can always stay in bed all day and wait for Saturday the 14th  🙂 .

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Education Focus: Field Trips / Class Trips

Posted on 2012/07/09
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Field Trip

Field Trip

Sometimes it is helpful for students to see something or experience something themselves, instead of just reading about it in a book.  To help students learn something firsthand, many teachers will take a class of students on either a field trip or a class trip.

Field Trip

A field trip is a special outing.  The purpose of a field trip is to help students better understand the material being taught.  So, field trips are often tied to material that is being studied in a particular subject.  For example, a class studying the period of the American Civil War might take a field trip to Springfield, Illinois, where Abraham Lincoln’s house is, as well as Lincoln’s Tomb.  On the other hand, a class of younger children learning basic biology might go on a field trip to the zoo.

Field trips are usually only for the day, during school hours.  So, the places a class might go on a field trip are limited to those places within a reasonable driving distance.  That way, the school can have the students back in time for the closing bell at the end of the school day.

To go on a field trip, a student must have a parent’s permission.  Before the field trip is scheduled to take place, the teacher will hand out permission slips to the students.  If a parent consents to the student going on the field trip, the parent should sign the permission slip, and the student must bring it back to the teacher.  The teacher will not allow the student to go on the field trip without a permission slip signed by the parent.  If a student does not go with his classmates on the field trip (whether because of the lack of a parent’s permission, or some other reason), the student will stay at school and be given other work to do under the supervision of one of the other teachers.

Sometimes a few parents will go on the field trip along with the students.  These parents are called “chaperones.”  The teacher usually likes to have chaperones on a field trip, because it helps to extra adults helping the teacher to organize the excursion and make things run more smoothly.

Students often ride a school bus when they are going on a field trip.  American schools generally have buses that transport students to and from school when students live too far away to walk, so it makes sense to use the school buses during the day for things like field trips.  This also helps to keep the cost of participating on a field trip down, so often the only fees a student would have to pay for a field trip would be any admission costs, or personal expenses (for example, snacks or souvenirs).  If a field trip includes the lunch hour, most students will bring a sack lunch for the trip.

Class Trip

A class trip is also a special outing, but it is generally an overnight trip (or over several nights).  Class trips usually involve more traveling than day trips – for example, students might go on a class trip to Washington, D.C.

Class trips also require parental permission, particularly in light of the fact that they cover one or more days away from home.  Chaperones often go on class trips as well, especially since the trip covers several days.  Also, because a class trip is longer than a field trip, they have more expenses – travel, admission fees, hotel, food – than a field trip, and they therefore cost more.  Traveling by coach bus is one way to keep expenses reasonable, but the cost of a class trip can still get fairly high.  Consequently, a class might hold fundraisers, such as bake sales or car washes, to generate money to help offset costs and enable more students to participate.

Class trips are often done as a special trip for a graduating class.  For example, an 8th grade class might go on a class trip in the spring as a kind of final trip together before the class graduates and moves on to high school.  Likewise, high school seniors might go on a class trip in the spring of their final year before they all graduate and go their separate ways to college or the world of work.

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Culture Focus: 4th of July

Posted on 2012/07/04
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Writing the Declaration of Independence

Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson writing the Declaration of Independence.

Today is Independence Day in the United States.  It is commonly called “the 4th of July” because it was on this date in 1776 when the Continental Congress (Founding Fathers) signed a document at the Pennsylvania State House (now called “Independence Hall”) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  This document, called the Declaration of Independence, was a kind of “open letter” to King George III, ruler of England.

In the Declaration of Independence, the Founding Fathers listed their grievances with the king, and why the colonies were formally separating from Great Britain.  At the heart of the matter were two issues:  the tyranny of the king, and taxation without representation.  Because the British monarch and his government repeatedly ignored these concerns of the colonies, the colonies wanted out from under the boot of Britain.  So, the Declaration of Independence marked the birth of a new nation – no longer colonies subject to the rule of England, but now an independent nation, the United States of America.

Since this happened over 230 years ago, many people tend to forget the history behind the holiday, and focus instead on parades, fireworks, and getting a day off from work.  However, it is said that history repeats itself (largely because people do not learn from history!), and once again the American people find themselves in a situation with conditions that parallel those of colonial America in the 1770s – they find themselves under a government that is becoming increasingly tyrannical, and they are being heavily taxed while their supposed representatives in Congress do the exact opposite of what the people want.  It was this failure of government to acknowledge that its just authority and legitimacy was derived from the “consent of the governed” that drove the first American Revolution – if the current government continues to ignore the will of its citizens, it will bring about a Second American Revolution.

For over 200 years, Americans have always valued Freedom and Liberty over Tyranny and Oppression.  We recognize that any government that attempts to take away our “unalienable rights” – among which are the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” – is an illegitimate government that must be opposed.

The day Americans forget this truth is the day America dies.

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Education Focus: Tutoring

Posted on 2012/07/02
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Private tutoringFor today’s Education Focus I want to take a quick look at tutoring.  When Americans talk of “tutoring,” they generally mean any kind of private, one-to-one academic instruction.  Sometimes, it is possible that a student might be eligible to receive specialized, one-on-one instruction from his own school.  For example, a student might have a lengthy absence from school due to a chronic or long-lasting medical condition.  In this case, the school would assign a private instructor to tutor the student at home or in the hospital to help the student keep up with his classmates and schoolwork so he will not be behind when he is finally able to return to school.

Most of the time, though, tutoring takes place independently of the student’s school.  Because of this, it is the parents’ responsibility to arrange for this independent instruction and pay for it.  There are many options available for parents who wish to arrange to have their student tutored.  It depends on the reason why a parent wants to make such arrangements.

Most Americans view tutoring as a remedial activity.  This means that they are concerned that their student is falling behind in his school subjects, or has difficulty understanding what is going on in class or with doing his homework, and needs extra help beyond what the teacher can provide.  The parents want to make sure that their student can keep up with his classmates, so they enlist the help of a private educational center that focuses on providing remedial instruction, such as Sylvan Learning Centers, Huntington Learning Centers, or Kumon.  Strictly speaking, these places generally provide semi-private instruction rather than true one-on-one instruction, as students usually share an instructor with two or three other students.  In addition to the national franchises mentioned above, there are other private educational centers that also focus on remedial instruction.  Other options for parents in this situation might include hiring a college student or retired teacher to come to the home and provide individualized, independent instruction.  Of course, one-on-one instruction is going to cost more than semi-private instruction at one of the private educational centers, but some parents prefer this arrangement for its convenience and efficiency.

Some Americans, however, view tutoring as an enrichment activity.  They are concerned that their student is not being sufficiently challenged in school, and they wish to provide their student with more intellectual stimulation than is available in a normal school setting.  They might be interested in helping their student to accelerate, or get ahead in school, and thus they seek out tutors who can help their student progress at a faster pace than in a normal classroom.  Most parents seeking such a challenge for their student are generally not well-served by the national tutoring franchises, and so must look elsewhere for private tutors, such as searching online or inquiring at a local college.  It is more difficult to find a tutor for this type of instruction, but once one is found, the parents generally try to retain such a tutor, as they find it to be a worthwhile investment in their student’s education.

Additionally, most parents are concerned that their student get into a good college. To this end, then, many parents arrange for their student to have tutoring that focuses specifically on the SAT and / or ACT, which tests play a major role in the college admission process.  Although many SAT prep classes may claim to guarantee a specific point gain as the result of the student having gone through their program, the fact is that the degree to which a student’s performance will improve depends heavily on the circumstances of the individual student.  For example, a student who is already scoring at the 90th percentile will probably not see a point gain of one hundred points or more.  However, a student scoring at the 25th percentile could very well improve his score by two hundred points or more with practice and training.  It is important for parents and students alike to have realistic expectations from an SAT prep class, and recognize what such a class can and cannot do.

At Summit Language Institute, we provide private instruction for your student, whether you are interested in getting your student up to speed, or you want to help your student prepare for the SAT/ACT.  If you live in the Chicago area and would like more information, please contact us for a free, no-obligation consultation.

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Education Focus: School’s Out!

Posted on 2012/06/04
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School's out, school's out!

With the start of June, many students are eagerly anticipating their summer break, if it hasn’t already started!  Most elementary, middle, and high schools generally have their last day of school sometime around the end of May or the beginning of June.  For school districts in northern states, a school year might be extended or not, depending on whether any “snow days” were used in the course of the academic year.  Some districts do not include any snow days in their calendar, so if they have to cancel any school days because of too much snow, they make up for it by extending the end of the school year by an equal number of days.  Other districts include extra snow days in their calendar in advance, and any unused snow days convert to summer vacation.

Sometime during the final days of the school year, some schools might have a school / class picnic or other celebration before the students are dismissed for the summer.  Before the final day of class, textbooks have to be returned, desks and lockers have to be cleaned out, and art projects have to be taken home.  It used to be that on the very last day of the school year, students would attend school to pick up their report card and find out if they would be promoted to the next grade for the fall.  They would also say goodbye to their classmates and teachers.  Now, most schools mail out the report cards, so there is not much to do on the final day except take care of any loose ends – make sure that locker is cleaned out, or finally pay the fine on that overdue library book – and say goodbye.  Both students and teachers look forward to several weeks of freedom from the normal grind of school, until classes start up again in late August or early September.

There are two short rhymes about the end of the school year:

School’s out, school’s out – teacher let the monkeys out!

and

No more pencils
No more books
No more teacher’s dirty looks!

(“dirty looks” is an expression that describes the disapproving way a parent or a teacher might look at a child who misbehaves.)

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